Libel Typecasting

Published: October 13, 1997

To the Editor:

Your Oct. 8 Business Day article about Lyle Stuart, the book publisher whose company is now ''near extinction'' because he lost a costly libel suit, offers the standard media account of libel: the plaintiff as villain and the defendant as victim.

I served as an expert witness for the plaintiff, Steve Wynn, the casino owner, because I felt Mr. Stuart had acted recklessly and irresponsibly. After weeks of reading affidavits and depositions, I concluded, as did the jury, that Mr. Stuart's description of Mr. Wynn was unfair and unfounded.

Your article, however, presents a sympathetic portrait of Mr. Stuart as a ''contrarian'' publisher whose ''gadfly of a publishing house'' takes on ''books that other publishers scorned for their controversial nature.'' The only sources you cite, other than the litigants and their lawyers, are First Amendment lawyers whose speciality is crafting defenses for libel defendants.